An Overthinking Everything Blog

Archive for April, 2010

I’m aggravated today. We are packing for a trip to Saint Louis to visit family which should be a blast. The only problem is that when you travel for more than a day with three small kids you have to pack EVERYTHING necessary for survival, which is pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. For instance, we will need two types of Tylenol (childrens and infants), snacks, infant cereal, bottles, formula, several changes of underwear and shorts for kids (and pants incase it gets chilly), tons and tons of bibs, spoons, ice packs, band aids, hair ponys for the child with long hair, hair clips for the child with long bangs, and even small travel dvd players with a selection of movies so that the children will peacefully veg out for five hours, HOPEFULLY. And to think, at one point we wondered if we would need to buy a minivan to cater to our three-child family. Thank God we did! However, it is in the shop, and our fingers are crossed that it will be ready by tomorrow morning or we will be seriously missing what I have come to know as our rolling house. Our other option will be taking my husbands car, the Mazda 5, known to the automotive world as a cross-over mini-mini van. In the world of vans it’s more like a rolling flat which will leave our large family packed like miserable, sad, limp sardines.

My only hope is that we make it down there “situation” free. This means no unexpected poop out of the diaper, car sick vomiting, obsessive complaining or crying, boo-boos, interstate back-ups, or car breakdowns. So far everything is going relatively well and I expect our only set-backs to be the numerous hole-in-the-wall McDonalds and gas station bathrooms. My fingers are crossed… TIGHTLY!

I have to keep reminding myself of the anxiety I felt a few years ago when my husband decided that it would be a great idea to drive fourteen hours from Kentucky to Disney World, each way. I thought he was absolutely CRAZY!!! At the time we just had two children, but they were eighteen-months-old and three-years-old. For weeks all I thought about were the obstacles with preparing not only physically for such a drive, but emotionally and mentally which required a lot of help from me spiritually. By the time it was said and done, sure the drive was long, there were some set-backs, but yet again my husband was right and it ended up being one of the best memories of our trip. Afterall, how entertaining is it to count the number of times you can see the word pecan or peach while driving through Georgia? This time our drive from Nashville to Saint Louis is only five-hours plus stops which time wise beats the socks off of fourteen hours. I can only be reminded of how much can happen within a five-hour time span that could seriously alter my sanity. There is no turning back. All I can do is pack and pray, not to mention preparing for personal emergencies by stashing some Excedrin Migraine and a few pieces of left-over Easter chocolate into the “Mommy-Only Pouch” of the baby’s diaper bag.